Authors: Ginna Gray
His words hit Erin like a bucket of ice water. She stared at him, numb with shock.
Then, as it sank in, embarrassment washed over her, and she burned from the soles of her feet to her scalp.
Erin thought of how Max had touched and held her, of his sexy glances and the outrageous things he had whispered in her ear. And his kisses! Oh, Lord, she'd responded to him shamelessly!
And it was no use pretending that she'd merely been faking, behaving as she'd thought Elise would have. She knew it wasn't true. What was worse, she was certain that Max knew it, too.
At that moment Erin would have given ten years of her life if only the earth would open up and swallow her.
Just when she thought she'd reached the peak of embarrassment, Max shifted his weight up onto his elbows, and the movement brought her a sharp awareness of their position.
He lay cradled between her thighs, his aroused manhood pressing against her with shocking intimacy. Chest to breast, belly to belly, their bodies were molded together, separated by only thin layers of clothing. Short of actually making love, they were as close as two people could get.
With a moan of distress, Erin closed her eyes and covered her face with both hands.
Max's deep chuckle vibrated through her. "What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"
"How long have you known?" The question was muffled against her palms.
"Since before we left the office, though I was aware almost from the moment you walked in that something was a bit out of kilter."
She moaned again as a fresh wave of humiliation washed over her. He'd known for hours!
Erin grew still, a frown forming behind her hands. Which meant... he'd been stringing her along all evening!
Embarrassment gave way to anger, and she snatched her hands away from her face. "You knew! All this time, you knew!" she spat accusingly.
Max answered with a slow, smug smile that sent her temper soaring even higher. "Oh! You.. .you're..." Erin shoved at his shoulders. "Off! Off! Get off me, you jerk! Right now!"
"Why? I find this position quite comfor—" He stopped, gave her a salacious look and amended slyly, "Well.. .maybe comfortable isn't the word. Shall we say.. .uh.. .enjoyable."
Erin made an infuriated sound. She bucked her hips and began to pummel his back and shoulders, his head, anything she could reach.
Chuckling, Max absorbed the rain of blows for several moments without so much as flinching. Finally, taking his time about it, he sat up.
The instant Erin was free of his weight she scrambled off the couch. Flustered, she backed away several steps, snatching at her rumpled clothes and glowering at the grinning man on the sofa.
The amusement in Max's face maddened Erin almost to the point of explosion. Not trusting herself to stay within striking range and too incensed to speak, she made a low, wrathful sound, spun on her heel and stalked toward the door.
Max's taunting laughter followed her.
Erin gritted her teeth and kept going. Ignore him, she instructed herself. Don't let him get to you. That's exactly what he wants. Just use your head and ignore him.
It was good advice but impossible to heed. Before she was halfway across the room her fury boiled over, and she whirled around and stomped back.
"I suppose this evening's charade was your idea of a joke," she accused him, glaring down at him, fists planted on her hips.
Max lazed back and stretched his arms out on either side along the top of the sofa. "More on the order of a salutary lesson."
"Lesson! You've got some nerve, mister! Just who do you think you are?"
"Your sister's employer," he shot back with the mocking satisfaction of a man who has the upper hand and knows it. "And frankly, I'm surprised that Elise would be a party to such a juvenile trick. It was unnecessary, you know. If she wanted time off, all she had to do was ask."
His voice held traces of both annoyance and reluctant amusement, but it was the latter to which Erin reacted.
"What? You can't be serious! You actually think my sister would ask me to take her place just so she could have an unearned vacation?"
Max shrugged. "You're here, and she's not. That pretty well says it all."
"All it says is that you have a nasty, suspicious mind and are good at jumping to conclusions. You couldn't be more wrong."
"Uh-huh, sure. Then suppose you explain why you just spent several hours pretending to be Elise?"
"I...well..." Too late, Erin realized she had backed herself into a corner.
Fool!
she scolded herself. Now what could she do? It would have been smarter to go along with his assumption. She groped for an excuse, but nothing she thought of sounded remotely plausible.
"What's the matter? Can't you come up with a good enough story?" Max taunted. He laughed as a guilty flush colored Erin's face.
"No, no. It's not that. I..." Erin bit her lower lip and watched him warily. She could only hope that Max was as innocent as he seemed, because she had no choice but to tell him the truth.
"I came here looking for Elise. Or at least, I was hoping to discover where she'd gone. You see, last night she called me." Quickly, Erin told him about the mysterious call she'd received from Elise and the hysterical fear that had permeated her sister's incoherent babbling. "I tried to get more out of her, but she just warned me to stay away and hung up." Erin shrugged and spread her hands wide. "I was worried about her. I caught the first flight I could, but when I arrived she had already gone. From the looks of her apartment, she left in a hurry. The place is a mess."
Max gave her a long, steady look, then slowly clapped his hands. "Very good. A bit farfetched, a tad melodramatic, but not bad for spur of the moment."
Erin's face went slack with astonishment. "You don't believe me!"
"Oh, come on, Erin. You didn't honestly expect me to swallow that tale, did you? That someone is trying to kill Elise because she stumbled onto some sort of skulduggery?" He laughed and shook his head. "Surely you can do better than that."
"It's true!"
"Look, she told me that you two pulled this stunt all the time when you were growing up. I think you hatched this scheme between you to give Elise a few days off. From what I've heard about you, you probably looked on it as another adventure. Though how you expected to pull it off, I don't know. You're really a rotten secretary, you know."
"You're not exactly a candidate for boss of the year yourself," she retorted, stung. "But for your information, I am not making this up. My sister is out there somewhere, terrified and fleeing for her life."
When Max merely continued to look at her with patent disbelief, Erin dragged a hand through her hair and snapped, "All right. All right. If we planned this whole thing, then why was Elise gone when I arrived? Explain that, if you can."
Max laughed and shook his head. "Look, she knew you were coming to fill in for her, right? So.. .she decided to take off early, that's all. If you'll look around her apartment, you'll probably find that she left you a note, explaining. My guess is that at this very moment Elise is sharing some romantic hideaway with the man in her life."
"That would be a bit difficult, don't you think," Erin charged with angry sarcasm, "since you happen to be the man in her life."
"What!"
Max bounded off the sofa and stared at her as though she'd lost her mind. Erin stared right back, daring him to deny the statement.
"Now look here. There's nothing like that between Elise and me! My relationship with your sister is purely professional. She's my secretary. That's all!"
"I don't know how you have the nerve to say that. Not after the way you've behaved all evening."
"That was just to shake you up. It had nothing to do with Elise. I knew all along which sister I was kissing."
The statement sent a little thrill racing through Erin, but she squashed it. "Very good, Delany, for spur of the moment," she taunted, throwing his words back at him.
Max narrowed his eyes. "You don't believe me."
"Do you believe that I'm here because Elise is in trouble?"
"Not a chance, lady."
"Then I guess we're even."
He gave her a long intent stare. "I guess so," he said finally. A hint of laughter glittered in his eyes, and he leaned forward, his lazy self-confidence returning. "But since you brought it up, you sure responded passionately.. .for a woman who thought she was kissing her sister's lover."
Erin tilted her chin, her jaw tightening. Already riddled with guilt, she had no intention of letting him pile on more. "I was pretending to be Elise."
"Sure you were."
"Oh, what's the use? You're determined not to believe a word I say, so there's no point in continuing."
"Where are you going?" Max called after her when she hooked her purse strap over her shoulder and headed for the door.
"I'm leaving."
"It's two miles to the warehouse."
"I've walked two miles before."
"Down a mountain road in the dark?"
"I'll manage."
Max caught up with her in the entrance hall. He grasped her upper arm and tightened his hold when she tried to wrench away. "I'm sure you would, but as a gentleman, I insist on driving you back to your car. That is, to your sister's car." Ignoring her venomous look, he pulled a jacket from the closet and bundled her out the door and into the Continental.
Deep down, Erin was relieved. The thought of running afoul of a mountain lion or stepping off a precipice in the dark had already begun to send little shivers of fear down her spine. Nonetheless, she would have bitten off her tongue before admitting that to Max. Gentleman, indeed!
For the first minute or so they rode in silence. Erin sat as far away from him as she could get and stared straight ahead. Silently, she called Max Delany every dirty name she could think of. That he had tricked her and made her look like a fool was bad enough. His denial of any personal relationship with her sister really infuriated her. Poor Elise. She had given her heart to a shallow, callous charmer with a roving eye. Erin's hands curled into tight fists in her lap, every protective instinct she possessed aroused as she thought of the ease with which he had dismissed her sister, and of how hurt Elise would be if she knew.
Then she cursed herself and her impulsive nature, which had landed her in the awkward, utterly humiliating situation. Concern for Elise already had her nerves stretched taut as a bowstring. She didn't need this added complication.
Max glanced her way, and from the corner of her eye Erin saw the flash of his white teeth. "Aren't you uncomfortable, squashed up against the door like that?"
She shot him a quelling look, then turned to stare out at the twinkling lights of Santa Fe, below in the distance.
"Brrrr. It's cold tonight," Max said with a thread of laughter in his voice. "Even colder than usual. Maybe I should turn up the heater."
Pretending he wasn't there, Erin maintained her stony silence.
It took only a few minutes more to reach the warehouse. In that time Max made several more teasing attempts at conversation, all of which she ignored.
He turned into the parking lot, but before he could bring the car to a complete stop Erin had the door open and was swinging her legs to the ground.
"Since you're filling in for Elise, I'll see you in the morning. Office hours start at eight, so don't be late."
The words, addressed to Erin's back as she was about to bolt out of the car, stopped her cold. With her hand still on the door handle, she turned her head and gave Max a long, level look over her shoulder. In a soft but precise voice she said, "Go to hell, Delany."
She climbed out and slammed the door with enough force to tear it off its hinges.
An amused smile twitched about Max's mouth. Amazing. Who would have thought that Elise—gentle, soft, serene Elise—would have such a firebrand for a sister. Daring, intelligence, spirit, plus his secretary's vivid coloring and lush beauty—it was a potent combination, one he found wildly attractive and exciting.
He studied the provocative angry sway of her hips as she stalked away, his eyes glittering with masculine appreciation. Yessir, Erin Blaine was one hell of a woman.
Common sense told him he'd be foolish even to think of getting involved with her. She was his secretary's sister, for Pete's sake. Things could get sticky in one big hurry, he cautioned himself.
Besides, how could you have a relationship with a woman who not only didn't live in the same town as you, but who was seldom even in the same country? According to Elise, Erin maintained an apartment in Houston, but it was little more than a place she visited between assignments.
Any way he looked at it, he'd be asking for trouble if he gave in to the attraction. It was ill-advised, impractical, maybe even downright stupid. Max's lips twitched again, and he expelled a wry, self-deprecating sigh. And... it was irresistible. It might not rank as the smartest move he ever made, but he was going to do his damnedest to get to know Erin Blaine.